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Near releases new SNES Bahamut Lagoon English Translation
I'm so happy to see this finally released on the 25th anniversary of its release! Now to go play this game for my first time ever - one of the few Squaresoft games from the SNES era I haven't played.
Download BPS Patch [and source]:
https://near.sh/bahamut-lagoon
Article:
https://www.inputmag.com/gaming/aft...ame-finally-gets-a-proper-english-translation
Credits:
Near — programming and design
Tom — script translation
FlashPV — ending graphic
dev_urandom — italic font
blargg — optimized base56 coder
Zehzin, socksfelloff, Rock — beta testing
ContraryMotion, Ballz, Lord Nightmare — script proofreading
Features:
- A brand new script translation from a native English speaker with Japanese fluency far beyond the JLPT N1.
- Exhaustively researched translations for all names.
- Ubiquitous use of proportional fonts and tabular numbers throughout the entire game.
- Normal-weighted sans-serif fonts with strong shadowing and anti-aliasing for readability.
- An italic font for sound effects and letters, a smallcaps font for menu headings, and a bold font for the credits.
- Support for extended characters such as umlauts to allow for more faithful translations.
- True font kerning with overlap support for every font in the game.
- Player and dragon names were expanded to 11 characters, allowing even the longest names to fit.
- Every list (of names, items, enemies, etc) has been statically rendered for performance.
- Player and dragon names are cached in memory, so they do not have to be rendered dynamically within menus.
- When necessary, pre-shifted proportional fonts provide the fastest dynamic text rendering possible.
- Field status display messages converted to use the larger proportional font for consistency and increased readability.
- All proportional text strings are double-buffered to prevent flickering when moving between screens and lists.
- Extensive knowledge of the SNES hardware was utilized to safely maximize data transfers to video RAM each frame.
- Expanded save RAM and a method to avoid requiring memory initialization to greatly reduce required game code hooks.
- Not that they are necessary, but safeguards were put into place to prevent text overflow for every string in the game.
- Multiple text colors were added to help distinguish between text, names, headers, quantities, etc.
- The title screen menu and ending screen graphic were redesigned for better legibility.
- The opening and ending credits were redesigned with a new bold font for better legibility.
- All Japanese graphical text strings were translated, and English text strings were localized better.
- Every menu dynamically resizes to take up the least amount of screen space possible.
- Every menu cursor has been repositioned for consistency.
- Every menu screen has had its layout optimized for readability.
- Several bugs present in the original game were fixed.
- All dragon stats (including previously hidden stats) have been made available on all screens.
- The internal debugger has been fully translated into English, with some of its original bugs fixed.
- Item icons added to the player field screens.
- Status icon ordering has been made consistent between all of the various screens in the game.
- Class names have been re-added to screens they were missing from when no status modifier icons apply.
- Pixel-perfect alignment of every string with left/center/right-justification support.
- Customized and additional HDMA scrolling tables to present additional strings within menus.
- All menus optimized to avoid the overscan areas of CRT monitors.
- Extensive beta testing including dozens of completed play-throughs.
- Over 370KB of new SNES assembly code and 180KB of tooling code.
- Source code written using extensive macros and pseudo-instructions to enhance readability.
- The entire project is fully open-source and ISC-licensed. Translations to other languages are welcome and encouraged!
- Absolutely no self-promotion or hidden easter eggs replacing dialogue from the original game.
- ... and so very, very much more!
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I'm surprised that they didn't even add their names to the game's credits - given how much work's gone into this, it seems the least they could do.
Incredible work.
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Absolutely no self-promotion or hidden easter eggs replacing dialogue from the original game.
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I have to admit, if I put this much effort into a translation project I would put myself in the credits (and anyone else who assisted) underneath an "English Translation" section at the end. I don't see the harm in adding that to the end credits. I absolutely hate when these things appear in the middle of the game though, I never want to see that and would never inject myself into the main game.
I've started my play through for this game and the default name set for the main character is 'byuu' (which you can easily change before its committed). I thought this was interesting as I know Near should be used, but I also know that the old name originated from from this game, so perhaps that was the real default name in the game? I'm going to have to go with that for now. Otherwise I would assume the default-before-changing would have ended up being Near.
I've never played this game before and I'm really enjoying it right now. I'm about 5 hours into it and so far everything has been flawless. I'm really enjoying the pixel art in this game and everything looks and plays fantastic (in bsnes, of course).
I have one wish in this world, and it is to see Dragon Quest V & VI (SNES) translated as well as this game has been done. I used to call the Nintendo hotline weekly (anyone else remember that free service?) to find out when the English release of DQ5 on the SNES would be and it kept getting pushed out. The one day I called and they said its no longer on their schedule and won't be released I was devastated (I believe Enix NA closed its doors). Literally one of the most awful days I remember. I feel like an important piece of my childhood was robbed from me, as I adored DW I - IV on the NES. I wish I had the motivation Near does to learn this stuff. Truth be told, outside of the Japanese <> English script translation, it likely wouldn't take long to get caught up on the rest. Alas, time is a precious resource. :-(
Truth be told, I'd also love to see a translation of this caliber of 1 - III on the SNES, as well as IV on the PlayStation, but that would just be gravy since I was able to play the originals. But V & VI on the SNES? At the level of this Bahamut Lagoon translation? I would pay for this without a doubt.
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I've started my play through for this game and the default name set for the main character is 'byuu' (which you can easily change before its committed). I thought this was interesting as I know Near should be used, but I also know that the old name originated from from this game, so perhaps that was the real default name in the game? I'm going to have to go with that for now. Otherwise I would assume the default-before-changing would have ended up being Near.
Byuu is the default name of the game's main character, yes - Near chose the name from that.
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If you haven't, the translations for Dragon Quest on the DS are some of the best in the industry. ArtePiazza consistently knocked it out of the park.
Them being so good is why you don't see many translation efforts.
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Appreciate the response, but I'm really looking for the SNES version. The DS versions are...meh. I'm old, I played Dragon Warrior I - IV on the NES as they came out. When I got the SNES, the first thing on my mind was Dragon Warrior [Quest] V. It was announced in the US, there was an initial release date, and it kept getting pushed out until it was finally cancelled. So my hopes were high, and they were eventually squashed. I REALLY wanted to play this game, and its sequel on the SNES. And I know there are some mostly complete translations (Near assisting with V in his early years), but I would absolutely love to play these two games on the SNES at the same level as this Bahamut Lagoon release. Like I said previously, this was devastating to me (even if V looked more like an enhanced NES game, but VI had great pixel art and looked like a SNES game). You probably needed to be there at the time. I was legitimately traumatized by this (I know, first world problems and it was a different time). I would happily pay for a translation of this quality for both games, or chip in with others to make this a reality.
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Hi all, I didn't expect to see this here, but thank you so much!!
Let's please not discuss
what happened last year again, it's something I want to put behind me but since I haven't posted here since then ... I'd like to say to you all that I'm really very sorry for leaving in July. Having my friends targeted in February was the most devastating thing I've ever had to deal with online, and when they started targeting another friend in July, I was past my breaking point and couldn't handle it anymore.
It seems I have something called
RSD. I sought help for it and I'm doing a lot better now. I am no longer blaming myself for the actions of others. I've not done anything to remotely deserve that and I truly understand that now. And in a way, I took a silver lining from it and have dedicated myself to more self-care and working on the projects that most interest me.
Bahamut Lagoon is a game I've desperately wanted to localize since 1998. No, I was not the first to finish it, but the important part to me was that I finished what I started, all the way back when I was a young teenager. This patch could have been finished ten years ago, but I always put it off, preferring instead to work on things I thought others would like more from me.
The support I've received for this patch has been overwhelmingly positive, and I really can't thank you all enough for that. It's really helped me out more than words can express, but ... sincerely, thank you. Thank you all so much.
On the name Near, which I've started going by a year ago: there are three reasons this is important to me. The first is that I used my old name as self-deprecation, its meaning being "mistake", something I felt for failing in my original fan translation of Bahamut Lagoon, where the name originates from. Especially with this patch release, that's no longer applicable ^-^
The second reason is that
Near is a character I very strongly relate with. I've long wanted a name that represented my personality and values.
And the third and final reason is more of a perk than an intention, but it's also to protect everyone. With the events from February, they were name-searching me to find others to target for doxing. By you all referring to me as Near, any supporting messages (at least, outside of
r/emulation), become unsearchable. This protects you, and this reduces my anxiety. People can easily
find meif they want to. But they won't be able to find
you. I do not need nor want the public recognition, so this really works out perfectly for me. It's the same reason I've reset my Twitter account. I don't need a large number of followers. I only need the support of my friends.
So, if you support me then if possible, please use just Near to refer to me, and that would mean a lot to me. If you don't, then use whatever name you like (or both); it makes no difference to me in that case.
Going forward, I'm mostly going to be sticking to my own spaces and just working at my own pace without the distractions of maintaining a public persona. I may take breaks as needed, and resume when rested. I have many new goals and directions, and I want to explore new things with ares. We're very nearly ready to launch Nintendo 64 support and I couldn't be more excited for that! But there will always be a part of me that values improving our knowledge for emulation, and I'll contribute any findings in that regard upstream to the higan project and others, you can count on that.
Well that's all. Thank you all again for the kind messages and support. I hope to share some exciting things with you all in the Near future ^-^
arch.b4k.co
redditorcpj
Near-ares
www.inputmag.com
